The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-25
ELECTRICITY AS A MOTIVE POWER.

New York Letter in Philadelphia Press.
saw this morning car destined for Boston
surface road in which storage battery placed
under the seats furnishes the power. The electric
dynamo made such thing possible. The elec-
trio light found in every town and village is due
to the invention of the dynamo. Without 1t
electricity would have remained laboratory Gu
riosity Tor most purposes except telegraphy. an
art In which the weak currents drawn from the
decomposition of zinc In acldulated water are
sufficient.
Two street car roads In this country, one
Ansonia, Conn, and one at Port Huron, Mich,
are now run with electricity. generated by tur
blpe water heels, and at expense very trif-
ling as compared to steam. With regard to the
efficiency of the motor the latest tests show that
OF the electricity sent out from the dynamo 90 per
cent. is given back by the motor in the shape of
power. This Is satisfactory that electri-
clans scarcely hope to do more. and their efforts
are now aimed at decreasing the weight and cost
OF the motor. For propelling cars and carriages
it is essential that the motor shall weigh little
in comparison to it's power.
There are now in the United States more than
thirty street railroads running by electricity
the oldest having been in operation less than
three years. and the recent additions to the list
having been made at the rate of one a week. In
no instance has return been made to horses
after electricity has been introduced, although
in many instances the car companies kept
their stables and their horses for some time in
order TO be prepared for failure of the
power. The cost. shown by the figures upon
sixteen roads. proves that electricity car do
for seven cents what costs eleven cents by
horses.
The chief cities where electric roads are now
running are Baltimore, Md; Port Huron, Mich;
Windsor, Canada Detroit, Mich; Appleton,
Wis; Scranton, Pa; Denver, Col; montgomery,
Ala; Kansas City; Orange, n. j.; Richmond,
Va; Mansfield, O.; ST. Paul, Mimi, and New
port, Ky. The list of towns where electric
roads are under contract is almost without end.
One of our foremost experts does not hesitate to
predict that within ten years such a thing n
horse car line will be curiosity electricity will
be everywhere and will do all the work formerly
done by horses.
The varieties of electric cars are many, but all
are the same in principle. The electricity is
Grated by steam or water power station
where the dynamos placed and sent along
wire even along the tracks to the motor
ried on eacn car. Sometimes the conducting
wire is strung overhead upon poles, and short
the car. Sometimes as in our Fulton
street road now building, the conducting wire is
placed IN an underground conduit provided with
a slit about half an inch wide III which slides
the wire connecting this cable with the mo-
tor.
When storage batteries are used the dynamo
at the central station pumps the electricity into
the battery, which is placed under the seats of
the car and connected with the motor geared to
the car aXles. There is as yet no electric road
running by storage batteries in this country,
but Europe has several brussels, Paris, Berlin),
aud the Brussels company now has several of
It's cars here. Many of our car companies are
inclined to try storage batteries because each
car is independent OF all others. whereas IL any
thing goes wrong with the main conductor. all
the STOP
One reason why our New York roads are
ready to take to electricity Is the cost of main
tanning enormous stables upon sites which were
not worth much generation ago, when the
roads began running, but are now very vaua-
bic. The trouble from strikes will also be less
when the army of street-car employees is not so
lnrge. There will still be driver and a
ductor for every car. but the army of hostlers
will disappear and the great stables can be sold,
The influence of the ], 200 hosters employed in
New York stable curously felt
month ago when the Third avenue Car Com
pany, our largest corpora atoms of the kind. ap-
piled to the aldermen for permission to lay a
cable and give up horses. The Holsters Union
notified the aldermen that the permit must not
be granted because their (the hostlers,) occupa-
ton would be gone in case horses were dispensed
with; and the aldermen found that the plea was
a good one.
Il was to be expected that no sooner were
street cars running successfully by electricity
than we should have electric carriages. IL car
companies using horses SO as to get every cents
worth of work out of them. find electricity
cheap, there is every reason to believe that as
compared with the carriage horse, used only
few hours a day, aud not every day at that the
new system would be cheaper STILL
Heating by electricity is problem already
pretty we'll solved. Our Fulton street electric
cars to be heated by plates of terra Gotta, In
which are embedded wires which become hot
whenever a current of electricity passes. The
experiments show that the plate becomes hot
very soon at expenditure of current scarcely
worth speaking of. Thus these will be
from the underground wire hidden in the con-
dut. If be heated in this manner
can houses Between the windmill. the dynamo
and the storage battery there Is good time COM
ing for the poor man.
Such men as Edison are however, hard at
work the problem, and consider it the great
aim of their lives Edison told me recently
that he took it up regularly about once a month
and worked at 1t for several days, at the end of
which time he seemed to against stone
wall, SO to speak, and all hope of achieving a
c,1If Hisan cd hat fba hlapl
which caused him to postpone his wedding trip
forty-eight hours. On the day he was married 20
his first wife. some ten years ago, his carriage
had to pass his laboratory the way from the
church to the railway station. An idea had
come to him in church, and the temptation to
test 1t strong. He got out the labo-
ratorv, promising to overtake his bride at the
station. That was the last she saw of him for
two days. Once at work. he oblivions to
everything, and he would have gone without
food had his assistants not given him crackers
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